Denver mayor says legal immigrants are being denied citizenship due to work in marijuana industry

Hancock is seeking guidance from U.S. attorney general and directing city staff to help

DENVER, CO – APRIL 03: The Dab cultivation manager Oswaldo Barrientos, who immigrated to the United States when he was a year old, stands for a portrait in a marijuana grow room he oversees Wednesday, April 3, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. Barrientos’ application for U.S. citizenship was recently denied, his attorney alleges, because he works in facility with marijuana. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Special to the Denver Post)Immigrant Marijuana

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and City Attorney Kristin Bronson are pressing the Trump administration to rethink its citizenship policies after legal immigrants in Denver have been denied the opportunity to become naturalized citizens because they work in the marijuana industry.

One of the people affected is Oswaldo Barrientos, who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. Brought to the U.S. by his mother from El Salvador when he was 1 year old, Barrientos has no criminal history. He got into the marijuana industry after his mom was diagnosed with cancer because he saw how effective it could be for her symptoms.

“I thought I was a shoo-in,” Barrientos said in an interview Wednesday from The Dab, a marijuana cultivation business, where he has worked for the past five years. “Then I received a letter from the government saying that I ‘lacked moral character.’ I was shocked.”

In a letter Wednesday to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Hancock said he met with Barrientos and another immigrant from Lithuania, who has also lived in Colorado for two decades.